IP Protection

Two terms we often see confused in conversations with our clients are ‘software protection’ and ‘IP protection’. Both are critical components of any software development and monetization strategy, and have a significant impact on your software development ROI.

There are a number of trends fueling business growth and profit strategies for hardware device vendors. Today, more and more hardware device vendors are transforming their business models from one-time sales transactions to ongoing relationship-based models with recurring revenue streams. Increasingly, device vendors are leveraging the software within their hardware devices to innovate and differentiate their devices in order to gain a competitive edge and grow their businesses.

The broadcast industry is rapidly changing. We need only look as far as over-the-top (OTT) services such as Hulu and Netflix to see that traditional billing models are in a state of disruption. Streaming video over the internet has become a popular alternative to traditional distribution channels, and the creation of that content requires a powerful set of software-based tools.

Every business will be a software business. That’s what Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella famously said in 2015, but he wasn’t the first. In fact it’s an idea and phrase that has now become so pervasive among the “technorati” that actually digging into it and fully understanding its meaning for the average business may sometimes become overlooked.

Innovation in farming technology can tell you a lot about how the IoT affects business models in the 21st century. Whether you’re a device manufacturer or software developer, it is important to evaluate the type of offering you bring to market in light of emerging markets and trends. In this article, we present five lessons every IoT player can learn from technological advancements in agriculture.

Today as more opportunities are created through IoT, we are seeing traditional hardware companies, whose intellectual property (IP) was the hardware that it manufactured, increasingly seeing the value in software and, in turn, changing their whole business and IP strategies to fit in with the new era. However, IP, hardware or software, is only as good as its protection and the business’ ability to successfully monetise it. Our recent research revealed that despite nearly nine out of 10 organisations admitting they are worried their software may become compromised, many are still not taking the threat seriously with over half (52%) leaving themselves vulnerable to IP theft by not using software IP protection tools.

Nostradamus predicted a number of interesting trends for 2016, such as a single world language that many speculate will emerge from the Internet. It is surprising, then, that he did not foresee the accelerated pace of technological innovation and adoption we are currently witnessing. Had technology forecasting existed in the sixteenth century, he might have predicted the disruptive impact this would have on business today.

I recently penned an article for Intellectual Property Magazine in which I offered practical tips for combating the rising tide of software piracy. Far from being a victimless crime, software piracy takes a significant toll on the software industry, costing developers worldwide over $60 billion a year in lost revenues.

In the 1973 movie Magnum Force, maverick cop Dirty Harry famously said that “A man’s got to know his limitations”. In business, knowing how and where to invest your resources can be the difference between success and failure. Indeed, overextending yourself when you should be focusing on your core competencies can have disastrous consequences for your bottom line if left unchecked.

The State of Software Monetization survey is here. With the help of Vanson Bourne, Gemalto set out to understand the software monetization industry and sentiments of ISVs, intelligent device manufacturers and software consumers worldwide and what challenges they are facing. Interestingly enough, results reveal that enterprise software customer demands are evolving and software vendors and intelligent device manufacturers need to adopt flexible and adaptable software licensing and software packaging techniques in order to meet these needs and generate more revenue opportunities.